In recent years, a voltage driven type element such as an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) has been used in a switching circuit or an inverter circuit employed in power control circuits for applications requiring high power. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-125574 discloses a switching circuit and inverter circuit that includes two series-connected IGBTs where each is connected with a freewheeling diode (FWD) in the form of an inverse-parallel connection. A reactor functioning as an inductive load is connected to the connection point of the IGBTs. The first IGBT (IGBT1) is connected to a direct-current voltage, the second IGBT (IGBT2) is connected to ground (GND), and a gate terminal of each IGBT is connected to a drive circuit. This drive circuit includes a push-pull transistor for charging/discharging the IGBT by means of an input of gate signal, a gate resistor connected between this transistor and the gate terminal of the IGBT, and an external capacitor connected between an emitter terminal of the IGBT and the gate resistor.